State police will investigate Toulon purchases

Tuesday

Apr 15, 2014 at 8:08 PM

Gary L. Smith of the Journal Star

TOULON — Questions about several thousand dollars in purchases made with city funds during the final 22 months of a city employee’s time on the job will be turned over to Illinois State Police for further investigation.

The Toulon City Council voted 6-0 on Monday night to endorse Mayor Larry Hollis’ request for that outside probe. The council spent the past few weeks deciding between that request and trying to resolve questions internally with former longtime public works director Shane Milroy, 54, of Kewanee.

Milroy, who retired in October after 32 years with the city, has publicly acknowledged making some $7,000 in purchases city officials have recently questioned, partly in response to reporting by the weekly Stark County News in Toulon. But he has insisted all the purchases, made at a Menards store in Kewanee, were made for city purposes and approved by the council.

And as recently as April 8, Hollis had told the Journal Star he planned to meet with Milroy last week to discuss possible reimbursement for any questionable items. Milroy said he would consider any such proposals, but never heard anything further until contacted by the Journal Star on Tuesday.

“All (Hollis) said was that he was going to discuss it with the council,” Milroy said.

Council member Donna Lefler, who previously suggested a special audit of city finances, said Monday night that “would be very costly.” A state police investigation will cost the city nothing and should provide information about “what they find about what our next step should be,” she said.

The decision was welcomed by people at the meeting. Toulon residents Ron Wallace and Fulvio Zerla urged the council to call for an outside investigation.

“They did the right thing. That’s the best possible outcome,” Zerla said later.

The small-town issue has played out in an unusual way partly because of the ground-breaking role the weekly paper played in reporting the matter. That organization never contacted or identified Milroy, and he later spoke only with the Journal Star and Kewanee Star Courier in denying he did anything improper.

“I just wanted to give my side,” he said at that time.

Milroy offered new information this week on one of the larger purchases questioned earlier. That was a $1,199 tankless water heater that was reported as questionable but is still in the city water building, though he did not know about its location until after he retired, he said.

“It’s been there all along,” he said.

In a related matter, the council voted to formally terminate Milroy as the city’s licensed water and sewer operator, a role he had been filling at no pay since retiring so that longtime city employee Mike Richardson could have time to acquire that license.

Gary L. Smith can be reached at (800) 516-0389 or glsmith@mtco.com. Read his Northern Circuit blog at pjstar.com. Follow him on Twitter @Glsmithx.